Bugatti reveals special edition Veyron GSV

Another day, another one-off ‘Ron. This one’s based on the 1928 Type 37A

To distract everyone from the fact that its Veyron's getting a bit long in the tooth, Bugatti's relentlessly painting it different colours, sticking porcelain on it, taking the roof off, and putting James May inside. Which explains why it only showed this Bianco and New Light Blue 16.4 Grand Sport Vitesse at Wednesday night's VAG party (no sniggering) in Paris, not the show itself - it's just a new paint job.

The manufacturer painted this one the same colours as the famous 1928 Type 37A Grand Prix-winner. The upper body's finished in "Bianco" including the roof area and the air scoops while the lower body panels (side skirting, front spoiler, radiator grille frame and rear apron with diffuser), the inner surfaces of the wheel rims and the underside of the automatically extending rear spoiler are in "New Light Blue." Inside, the peeled cows have been dyed "Cognac".

The car was instantly sold for £1.54m ($2.5m), considerably more than the £1.34m base price of the Vitesse. But even though it's mechanically unchanged, the 7.9-litre W16 still makes 1,500 Nm of torque, 1200hp, it'll get from 0-62mph in 2.6 seconds and top out at 255 mph. The new owner - Jay Leno - best have full confidence in the strength of his hair follicles...